Football in England is quite paradoxical. The English Premier League has the most lucrative TV deal in the world, worth £5.136 billion. Some of top English players are on salaries worth a whopping £150,000-200,000 per week. Yet the national team have floundered in the 21st century, the latest humiliation being eliminated by unfancied Iceland 1-2 in the round of sixteen of Euro 2016.
England’s mental fragility is quite embarrassing at major tournaments whether 2014 World Cup or Euro 2012 and Euro 2016.
Now, off the field scandals have also surfaced. Why should a man assured of a sum of £3 million ('25.9 crores) a year jeopardise his job for a fee of £400,000 ('3.4 crores) But this is exactly what happened to recent manager 61-year-old Sam Allardyce. There are also reports of about 17 suspicious transfers in England in which mangers have allegedly received kick-backs.
Considering that he had landed his dream job in only July this year, Allardyce should have been more cautious whilst talking on third-party ownership of players and how to circumvent Fifa rules. Admittedly at that time Allardyce did not know it was an undercover sting operation conducted by reporters of the Telegraph.
But what is baffling is why he criticised his employers, the Football Association of England and seek a lucrative role as an adviser in East Asia, when he had a high-profile and well paid job as manager of the national team.
Allardyce is not the first English manager to leave for inappropriate comments or deals.
In 1999 Glen Hoddle was removed as England’s manager after he made disrespectful comments about disabled people in a newspaper interview. Hoddle admitted it was a serious error of judgment but had to leave.
In the mid-seventies, then English manager Don Revie also left due to excessive greed. On July 12, 1977 the Daily Mail reported that Revie was leaving the prized job of England’s manager for a deal worth £340,000 from the United Arab Emirates. England had missed out on Euro 1976 and had lost 0-2 to Italy in Rome and did not look like qualifying for the 1978 World Cup also.
Revie was castigated as being mercenary. Bury manager Bob Stokoe had said, “He should have been castrated for the way he left England”.
During his tenure as manager, Revie was very patriotic. On his managerial debut in October 1974 against erstwhile Czechoslovakia he got the Wembley crowd singing “Land of Hope and Glory” as the teams marched out, He would also exhort his players to breathe fire for England. Despite all his patriotism Revie showed a mercenary streak, which Allardyce has also displayed about forty years later
The exits of Allardyce and Revie cannot be seen as just quirky character traits or individual bravado.
The mental pressures of the job and uncertain employment could lead to such mercenary behavior. Another factor could also be the English tabloid media’s incessant pressure on high-profile football managers.
The manager of England’s football team is a coveted and well paid job and such unacceptable behaviour is either a moral lapse or sheer greed. A public figure must set examples of exemplary behaviour.
